Why So Few Women College Presidents?

I have spent the last few days in Denver at a summit of women college presidents sponsored by HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) which is an organization that is best known for its institutes for women in leadership in higher education. I serve on the board of HERS. The dual themes of the summit were “Leading Transformation” and “Transforming Leadership.” The presidents divided their time between discussing ways to effectively govern their institutions during these times of great change and increasing the number of women leaders.

Women are significantly underrepresented among higher education presidents. Today, only 26% of the college presidents in the U.S. are women while more than 57% of the students in colleges and universities are women. Women have been in the majority among undergraduate students since 1980 and among graduate students since 1988. Women made up 10% of the college presidents in 1980 and 23% in 2006. They have increased their share of presidencies by 1 percentage point every two years; if they continue to increase their share of college presidencies at this rate, it will take 48 years to hold half of the college presidencies; that is a very, very long time. The group explored why this change is happening so slowly and what can be done to accelerate the pace of change. The discussion was informed by unpublished research that HERS did with the Center for Creative Leadership and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs along with conversations at the summit.

The barriers to more women becoming presidents include the following:

- lack of opportunity and support to move into leadership positions

- discouragement and sabotage as women aspire to the presidency

- lack of a leadership identity in part because of the dearth of role models

- different expectations for men and women

Having identified the barriers, the research went on to identify the supports that motivated women to become presidents. These include the following:

- encouragement and support

- having a role model

- early leadership experiences

- formal development experiences

The women presidents who were part of the research project as well as those at the summit discussed what they like about the job and what needs to be emphasized so that more qualified women aspire to becoming presidents. The most cited reasons for wanting to become a president were having an influence and making a difference. The women talked about the lives of their students and how they were able to change them. Many stories were told of institutional transformations primarily around increasing student success. The presidents were concerned with broadening access to their colleges while also increasing graduation rates. The breadth of the job as well as the power, authority and autonomy of the position were certainly positives in the eyes of the group. The group recognized the social imperative of higher education and understood clearly the need for social policy in the country to recognize this and better support higher education. Many in the group expressed concern that there are not more public intellectuals among college presidents and that many feel inhibited to talk freely because of all the constituents they must please.

The group left committing to work to increase the number of women presidents at a rate much faster than we have experienced over the last 30 plus years. On a personal level, most of the women left with renewed energy to mentor or sponsor at least one woman a year. At the macro level, the group identified the following strategies: